Stashing Up for the Winter

I can't believe it is November already...as one of my friends on Facebook posted today, "only 3 paychecks until Christmas."  And yikes, she's right!  So what am I doing accumulating stash?  Well, I found a few things.....
1) This came from the thrift store.  Tedd Arnold actually has some local connections, and while Mother Goose rhymes aren't always my first choice of stitching subjects, I like his style.  And then I opened it and saw it was autographed - for less than $2, I just couldn't pass it up!

2) A guilty eBay purchase.  I stitched a companion piece to the Shepherd's Bush design (Tending the Blooms) a few years ago, and decided "Keeping the Bees" would be a nice addition to the collection.  The SamSarah pattern is another I've liked for a while, and since it was affordable, came with the buttons and wouldn't increase my shipping cost (same seller), I figured why not.

3) A win!  Riona over at Oubliette had a giveaway, and I won Brightneedle's "Ezmerelda's House."  I think it is adorable, and even though Halloween is over for this year, I can see this getting started before next year's spooky season arrives...  Thank you, Riona!

But, lest you think I've not been stitching myself, I do have a (very!) small finish to share.

This is a Prairie Schooler design, the complimentary card that accompanies the "Santa Rides" leaflet.  I've been looking for this for a LONG time - I never wanted the actual leaflet, but just the card.  You see, my grandfather raced canoes well into his 70s (when he passed away from colon cancer).  I was in my LNS a month or so ago, and on a whim picked every Prairie Schooler card off the rack and started shuffling them around.  And what should fall out but this!  It really was serendipitous, since I've stopped visiting the store as often as I used to.  (The shop's new owner has changed the focus to quilting, so there are rarely new stitching patterns or supplies and I don't have a lot to spend anyway.)  But I grabbed this - along with the "Boo 1602" card that I stitched and posted a week or 2 ago.  It is stitched over-one on 28-ct. blue linen duck fabric, so it is about 2 1/2" square with the text.  Grampa's last name was Miller, and when we had Christmas at their house, all the presents would be from "Santa Miller."  So I thought that was appropriate in more ways than one!
The backing is a piece of the fabric I purchased earlier this year at the village yard sales, and the trim is a "pine branch" pipe cleaner.